Participants of the EBU Partnership Programme workshop in Zagreb, Croatia (HRT)

Public service news editors, from a number of Southeastern European countries hoping for EU membership, gathered in Croatia - the latest member of the EU - as part of an EBU Partnership Programme workshop (23 to 26 September).

Participants were trained to become instructors in their own right and looked at different teaching methods, case studies and editorial principles of other public broadcasters. They also discussed ways of improving the professional capacity of journalists and editors in their own countries.

The workshop was part of a comprehensive project that supports public service media in EU accession countries. It follows a series of eight workshops on public service news hosted at various public broadcasters in the region.

The aim was to boost the capacity of public service media to train their own editors and journalists and to ensure sustainability of the training efforts invested so far.

EBU instructors Frederic Frantz, Jonathan Stoneman (former BBC) and Tomislav Spoljar (HRT Training Academy) led the seminar.

Hans Laroes, who heads up the EBU project on Public Service Media Values, also presented the concept behind the values and the need for editorial principles in building a public service broadcaster that efficiently serves its public.

Project Manager of the EBU Partnership Programme Radka Betcheva said she is positive about the future implementation of this training. “The group was composed of very experienced and devoted professionals, who will continue on to be ambassadors of the EBU values at their own stations. The workshop also allowed us to identify more areas for improvement.”

The next workshop will focus on how news production trainers can help their own respective stations and colleagues adopt public service media values in their work. These sessions are due to take place over the next few months. Upon satisfactory evaluation of their performance they will receive certificates issued by the Eurovision ACADEMY.